Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Tuesday, as gains in the Oil & Gas, Basic Materials and Telecommunications sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.76%, while the S&P 500 index gained 1.44%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 1.09%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT), which rose 3.81% or 3.08 points to trade at 83.92 at the close. Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) added 3.27% or 3.47 points to end at 109.53 and Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) was up 2.98% or 2.67 points to 92.25 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), which added 0.09% or 0.03 points to trade at 33.68 in late trade. Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) added 0.10% or 0.04 points to end at 41.63 and Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK) gained 0.23% or 0.14 points to 61.02.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Denbury Resources Inc (NYSE:DNR) which rose 11.23% to 8.62, Staples Inc (NASDAQ:SPLS) which was up 10.91% to settle at 19.01 and Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc (NYSE:FCX) which gained 8.77% to close at 18.98.
The worst performers were National Oilwell Varco Inc (NYSE:NOV) which was down 4.10% to 54.08 in late trade, Southwest Airlines Company (NYSE:LUV) which lost 2.87% to settle at 43.25 and Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:VRTX) which was down 2.21% to 108.72 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were PostRock Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:PSTR) which rose 81.83% to 4.000, MER Telemanagement Solutions Ltd (NASDAQ:MTSL) which was up 63.54% to settle at 1.570 and Canadian Solar Inc (NASDAQ:CSIQ) which gained 25.19% to close at 26.690.
The worst performers were Onconova Th (NASDAQ:ONTX) which was down 36.33% to 2.55 in late trade, Stratasys Ltd (NASDAQ:SSYS) which lost 28.37% to settle at 57.36 and Corporte Re (NASDAQ:CRRS) which was down 25.77% to 0.49 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2444 to 351; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2067 rose and 713 declined, while 8 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 10.50% to 17.39.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was down 1.20% or 15.30 to $1261.60 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude Oil for delivery in March rose 4.44% or 2.20 to hit $51.77 a barrel, while the March Brent Oil contract rose 4.08% or 2.23 to trade at $56.98 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 1.25% to 1.1484, while USD/JPY rose 0.01% to 117.56.
The US Dollar Index was down 1.11% at 93.77.